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ER 2251
The Emperors Arcadius, Honorius and Theodosius issue a law according to which clerics who left the holy orders or were expelled because of their evil life should be obliged to fulfill their duties in the municipal councils (if they were decurions by birth) or other public services (if they were of lower classes). The law issued on 27 November 408, included in the Theodosian Code (16.2.39) published in 438 and in the Breviary of Alaric published in 506 in Gaul.
16.2.39 = Brev. 16.1.5
 
IMPPP. ARCADIUS, HONORIUS ET THEODOSIVS AAA. THEODORO P(RAEFECTO) P(RAETORI)O.
Quemcumque clericum indignum officio suo episcopus iudicaverit et ab ecclesiae ministerio segregaverit, aut si qui professum sacrae religionis obsequium sponte dereliquerit, continuo eum curia sibi vindicet, ut liber illi ultra ad ecclesiam recursus esse non possit, et pro hominum qualitate et quantitate patrimonii vel ordini suo vel collegio civitatis adiungatur: modo ut quibuscumque* apti erunt publicis necessitatibus obligentur, ita ut colludio quoque locus non sit. Per singulos igitur binae librae auri inferendae aerario nostro a decemprimis curialibus exigantur, si aliquibus illicitam conniventiam et colludia foeda praestiterint, hominibusque improbissimis ab omnibus officiis militiae aditus obstruatur.
DAT. V. KAL. DEC. RAVENNAE, BASSO ET PHILIPPO COSS.
Interpretatio.
Quemcumque clericum episcopus suus malae vitae esse probaverit et eum de gradu suo pro morum pravitate deiecerit, vel si ipse clericus sua voluntate professionem reliquerit clericatus, continuo a iudice curialibus adiungatur, ut, si ita et natalibus et facultatibus est idoneus, eum inter ipsos curiales officium suum implere compellat. Si autem infima persona est, inter collegiatos eum observare, vel ad quae aptus fuerit, in publico servire lex ista constituit, ita ut huius modi personae a curialibus quolibet colludio nullatenus excusentur. Quod si factum fuerit, pro singulis personis curiales binas libras auri fisco a se noverint inferendas.
 
(ed. Mommsen 1905: 848-49)
16.2.39 = Brev. 16.1.5
 
THE SAME AUGUSTI TO THEODORUS, PRAETORIAN PREFECT FOR THE SECOND TIME.
If a bishop should judge any cleric unworthy of his office and should separate hm from the ministry of the Church, or if any cleric should voluntarily abandon his professed service of the sacred religion, he shall be immediately vindicated to the municipal council, so that he may no longer have free opportunity to return to the Church. According to the legal status of the man and the amount of his patrimony, he shall be joined either to his own municipal senate or to a guild of the municipality, with the provision that he shall be obligated to the performance of the compulsory public services for which he is suitable, and thus there shall be no opportunity for collusion. For each such person, therefore, two pounds of gold shall be exacted from the ten chief decurions and paid to Our treasury, if these decurions should be guilty of unlawful connivance and foul collusion with any persons; and to the aforesaid most wicked men the avenue to all offices of the imperial service shall be barred.
GIVEN ON THE FIFTH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF DECEMBER AT RAVENNA IN THE YEAR OF THE CONSULSHIP OF BASSUS AND PHILIPPUS = 27 November 408.
Interpretation. If a bishop should prove that any cleric is a person of evil life and should expel him from his position on account of the depravity of his character or if any cleric himself of his own volition should forsake the clerical profession, he shall immediately be joined by the judge to the decurions, so that, if he should be suitable by reason of his birth status and his property, he shall be compelled to fulfill his duty among the decurions themselves. If, however, he is a person of the lowest class, it is established by this law that he shall serve as a member of the guilds, or he shall undertake that duty for which he is suitable in the public service, so that such persons shall by no means be excused by the decurions through any collusion whatever. If any collusion should occur, however, the decurions shall know that they must pay to the fisc two pounds of gold for each such person.
 
(trans. Pharr 1952: 447; lightly adapted)

Discussion:

The law is an excerpt of the Sirm. 9 which has the same date.

Place of event:

Region
  • East
  • Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia
  • Gaul
City
  • Constantinople
  • Ravenna

About the source:

Title: Codex Theodosianus, Code of Theodosius, Theodosian Code, Breviarium Alarici, Breviary of Alaric
Origin: Constantinople (East), Ravenna (Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia), Gaul
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The Theodosian Code is a compilation of the Roman legislation from the times of the Emperor Constantine to the times of Theodosius II. The work was begun in 427 and finished in autumn 437 when it was accepted for publication. It was promulgated in February 438 and came into effect from the beginning of the year 439.
 
The compilation consist of sixteen books in which all imperial constitutions are gathered beginning with the year 312. Books 1-5 did not survive and are reconstructed from the manuscripts of the Lex Romana Visigothorum, i.e. the Breviary of Alaric, the legal corpus published in 506 by the Visigothic king, Alaric, containing excerpts from the Theodosian Code equipped with explanatory notes (interpretationes), post-Theodosian novels and several other juristic texts.
 
A new compilation was undertaken during the reign of the emperor Justinian. A committee of ten persons prepared and promulgated the Codex in 529. It was quickly outdated because of the legislative activities of the emperor and therefore its revised version had to be published in 534. The Codex together with the novels, the Pandecta, a digest of juristic writings, and the Institutes, an introductory handbook are known under the medieval name "Corpus Iuris Civilis".
Edition:
Theodor Mommsen and Paul Martin Meyer (eds.), Theodosiani libri XVI cum constitutionibus Sirmondianis et leges novellae ad Theodosianum pertinentes, 2 vols., Berlin 1905
 
Translations:
The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, a translation with commentary, glossary, and bibliography by C. Pharr, Princeton 1952
Les lois religieuses des empereurs romains de Constantin à Théodose (312-438), v. 1, Code Théodosien livre XVI, text latin Th. Mommsen, trad. J. Rougé, introduction et notes R. Delmaire avec collab. F. Richard, Paris 2005
Bibliography:
(all those entries with extenstive, recent bibliography)

Categories:

Social origin or status - Social elite
    Social origin or status - Merchants and artisans
      Social origin or status - Peasants
        Described by a title - Clericus
          Impediments or requisits for the office - Improper/Immoral behaviour
            Impediments or requisits for the office - Unwillingness
              Public law - Secular
                Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
                  Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical
                    Administration of justice - Demotion
                      Economic status and activity - Taxes and services
                        Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2251, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2251
                        Record by: Marta Szada
                        last edited: 2019-08-12 10:26:48
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